FG, Labour plan to retrain 100,000 workers

FINE Gael and Labour have promised to pay for the retraining of 100,000 low-skilled workers if returned to power.

The two parties launched a joint strategy yesterday to ensure the country’s future skills needs are met.

The plan would introduce a voucher scheme to pay for higher education courses.

The parties would also introduce paid training leave of two weeks per year, financed by the State and offered at the minimum wage rate.

In addition, the parties would increase Exchequer support for employer-led training networks.

The parties’ goal is to “retrain and up-skill more than 100,000 workers” over the five-year term of the next government, focusing on the low-skilled.

They propose increasing the size of the National Training Fund (NTF) to implement their strategy.

The NTF was established in 2000 to raise the skills of those in employment or looking to find employment. It is funded through a levy on employers.

Fine Gael and Labour say they would neither increase the obligation on employers nor seek money from employees.

Instead, they would redirect 0.5% of employee PRSI contributions from the National Social Insurance Fund to the NTF.

The retraining strategy is the latest joint policy produced by the two parties, which have formed a pre-election pact.

It was produced by Fine Gael and Labour’s respective spokesmen on enterprise, trade and employment, Phil Hogan and Ruairi Quinn.

Mr Hogan acknowledged it was a “hugely ambitious” strategy, comparing the institutional transformation it would require to the introduction of free secondary education during the 1960s.

But he said it was necessary that workers retrained and raised their skills to meet future demands in a changing workplace.

Mr Quinn echoed those comments. “We need to support those already in the workforce without secondary educational qualifications to retain their employability” he said.